Long Road to Mercy (Atlee Pine, #1)(90)

Panting for breath, she suddenly felt Blum behind her, gripping her belt and then leaning backward, serving as the extra ballast that she needed.

Pine readied herself. Even as she could feel Chung working his right arm free, her limbs too spent to contain it much longer, she counted to five in her head.

Hold it, Atlee. Hold the lift. Just another few seconds. Another few seconds and you got the gold.

She grunted and then screamed as the Southwest Chief leapt forward with a burst of power from its twin engines. The sudden jolt of acceleration nearly carried all three of them outside, but Blum had quickly leaned back so far that her weight provided enough of a counterbalance to offset the increase in speed.

Three…

Pine had to time this exactly right. She could not afford to allow Chung to cling to her arms or legs. She was so tired that if the Korean managed to remain in the compartment, they were both dead. She wanted Blum and herself to keep their vertebrae right where they were.

She was leaning out so far now that she could barely breathe with the wind hitting her in the face.

Two…

She tensed every fiber, every ligament, in preparation for the release. She could feel the throb of Chung’s heart against her chest. She could hear his gasps. She could smell his fear.

As she could her own.

One…

She pushed against Chung’s back at the same moment that she let go of the death grip around the man’s arms.

She felt his freed limbs flailing in the air. The Korean managed to somehow turn to the side, his hands groping for the now-empty window frame.

They were nearly face-to-face as the lights on the train came on and this time stayed on.

She could see his features, as the wind sliding off the racing train pounded them both. She supposed they mirrored her own: Terror.

He suddenly reached out and gripped her windswept hair, right as Pine let go of his legs.

His fingers pulled out some of her hair by the roots, even as his feet danced frantically against nothing.

She leapt back as he tried to kick her in the face.

And then the wind caught him, and he was fully out the window, unable to regain any sort of equilibrium.

For a moment, he seemed suspended in the air, and then, like a passenger sucked out of a depressurized plane, Chung was jerked violently to the right and in a flash disappeared from view.

Then Pine was falling backward and into Blum’s outstretched arms.

The two women lay there on the floor for several minutes, shaking and gasping.

Finally, they slowly rose as the lights in the train went off once more before again coming back on.

A few seconds later the door slid open and a steward looked in. When he spied the missing window and the curtains being blown around the compartment by the force of the wind, he cried out, “Oh my God!”

Pine dropped into a sitting position in the lower bunk and said, “We need another room.” She drew a deep breath. “This one’s broken.”





Chapter

50



WINSLOW, ARIZONA.

Not Flagstaff.

Pine and Blum alighted about an hour behind schedule at the station, which was part of a hotel complex. Pine had figured someone might be waiting for them at Flagstaff, someone whom they really did not want to meet.

Contrary to the song lyrics, they were not here to take it easy.

Yet in keeping with the Eagles’ theme, they did spy a woman cruising by in a flat-bed Ford.

Pine waved her hand, and Jennifer Yazzie pulled the truck over to the curb.

Pine and Blum put their bags in the truck bed and climbed in, sitting shoulder to shoulder in the cab.

“Thanks for picking us up, Jen,” said Pine after introducing her to Blum.

“No problem. What’d you do to your face?” she asked, looking at Pine’s swollen chin and cut lip.

“Hit a door.”

“Why do I not believe that?”

“How’s Joe Jr.?”

“Still giving us fits.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

“You want to go to your home, or office?”

“Neither one. And I was hoping that Carol here could stay with you and Joe for a while, if that’s okay.”

Yazzie glanced at Blum quizzically and then back at Pine. “That’s fine. I was surprised to hear you were taking the train here. I didn’t even know you’d left town. Where were you?”

“Back east. And, if it’s all right, I need to borrow some of your hiking and camping gear.”

“Heading out again?”

“Going to hike the Canyon.”

Yazzie said, “What, solo?”

“That’s the plan.”

“Why?”

“Got some time off. Haven’t been down there in a while. Want to stretch my muscles.”

“I could go with you.”

“What, in all your free time?”

“Well, Joe could.”

“He has even less free time than you.”

“It’s not smart to hike by yourself, you know that.”

“I wanted to go with her,” said Blum. “But, well, I’m not sure I’m up to it anymore. My knees and my hip. I’d just hold her back.”

Pine said, “I’ll take it nice and easy. It’s not like I’m going rim-to-rim in one day. I plan to spend a few days down there.”